‘Translate,’ she whispered.
Lifting his head, Luc stared into her eyes. ‘Thank God for you, Emma.’
His heart welled with love for Emma, and for the stand she was taking. He loved her for her resilience, whatever life threw at her. This was the woman he wanted at his side. This was the woman who would fight for his children and protect them to her last breath. He had wasted too much time indulging in thoughts of revenge, when there was no revenge possible as the protagonists were dead. Was he going to allow the past to colour every decision he made? Wasn’t it time to move forward, instead of looking back?
‘What are you doing now?’ Emma demanded as he knelt at her feet.
‘I’m humbly asking you to be my wife.’
‘Humbly?’ she said, raising a brow.
‘As humbly as I can.’
A smile lit up her face. ‘Not humbly at all, then.’ She was silent for a while as they stared at each other, and then she frowned and said, ‘You’re serious, aren’t you?’
‘Never more so,’ he admitted.
Pressing her lips together, she smiled and shook her head. ‘Do you have to look like such a bad boy when you say such lovely things?’
He tipped his chin as he admitted ruefully, ‘Apparently so.’
‘In that case...’
Kneeling in front of him, Emma reached out and he took her hands in his.
‘I’m even more frightened now,’ she admitted.
‘You, frightened?’
‘Well...’ Her slanting smile lit up her eyes. ‘Perhaps a little apprehensive of what I’m taking on.’
‘Not half as apprehensive as I am,’ he admitted drily.
‘Love has been an alien and scary concept to me too,’ she admitted, ‘and for so long. My weird, dysfunctional past has left me wary like you, but I know that what I feel for you, and what I feel for our child is one of life’s gloriously unavoidable emotions, and it’s taken hold of me and will never let me go. It heals, it hurts, it thrills. It’s love. And I am a hostage for life.’
‘So that’s a yes?’
‘I think I’ve kept you on your knees long enough,’ she teased. ‘Yes. That’s the happiest yes you’ll ever hear.’
Bringing Emma into his arms, he kissed her, then raising her to her feet, he backed her towards the bedroom. ‘Food can wait,’ he said, nuzzling his lips against her neck. ‘You’re not going to faint with hunger, are you?’
‘Only with pleasure,’ she said, her eyes laughing into his.
* * *
She was shivering with need as Luc moved over her. She quickly helped him to take off her clothes. Sensation was everything. Heat was firing along every nerve ending she possessed. She was desperate to feel him naked, skin to skin. She seized hold of his shirt, dealing with the buttons frantically and then sliding it from his shoulders. Her hunger mounted as she felt his muscles ripple and bunch beneath her hands. Grabbing the buckle on his belt, she loosened his trousers. She felt for him and he sprang free. She clasped him, laughing softly at the fact that her hand would barely encompass him. ‘I want to taste you,’ she said.
‘Be my guest.’ Removing his jeans, Luc tossed them away. Rolling onto his back he meshed his fingers through her hair as she moved down the bed and took him. Suckling and lapping, for the sheer pleasure of hearing him groan, she stroked his powerful chest as she pleasured him, her own arousal mounting as she anticipated the moment when the tables would be turned. She didn’t have long to wait. Luc was impatient to have her. They were both greedy.
She laughed with excitement as he brought her beneath him. Lifting her so her head was on the pillows, he moved slowly down the bed. Taking hold of her wrists, he held them above her head. Closing her eyes as he kissed his way around her body, she smiled as sensation flooded her, and her heart throbbed with love.
‘I should have remembered how greedy you were,’ Luc said, his voice tight with lust as she raised her hips, demanding more contact. Resting her legs over the wide spread of his shoulders, so that she was completely exposed, completely vulnerable, he kissed her. Luc was a master of seduction, an expert at temptation, and he knew exactly which buttons to press. ‘No,’ he warned softly. ‘Not yet.’
He made her wait, which made her hungrier still for him, and it seemed for ever before he eased back, and then very slowly moved forward again. Taking her, he stretched her and filled her as he claimed her. He was so careful with her, so controlled. She trusted him completely, and the feeling had never been more extreme as he took her deeply. Pausing a moment to allow her to grow used to the sensation, he only had to roll his hips to make it impossible for her to hold on. Crying out wildly and repeatedly, she ceded control of everything gladly, to pleasure and to oneness with Luc.